Author's notes: This follows my own continuity of Batman, not the estbalished comics one. Some characters may have new origins, some may not. We'll see how it goes. Maybe a few original characters will get thrown in there.
May take inspiration from the Dark Knight.
Prologue
Welcome to Gotham City. The crime capital of America. Current crime rate: too fucking high. The police force tries its best, but when half the cops are on the take, and half are scared of the cops on the take, it becomes rather counter-productive. Any criminal that does get caught however, makes the trip across the river towards Arkham Asylum. The name implies that the place is a nuthouse, but it's really Gotham's biggest jail, the current population of which is 2,500. There are several smaller prisons, but Arkham is where the big boys go. Oh, and of course, the insane ones. It's not called the Asylum for nothing.
Our story begins at this godforsaken place on a cold, dank February night. The moon was high in the sky, giving the dark night some luminescence. A police van made its way down the long, lonely round towards the Asylum's front gates. It was a prisoner transfer van, and in the back was a petty criminal. Not even worth a name. He'd been caught running some grunt work for the mob and had been sent to Stonegate Penitentiary for the next ten years. So what was he doing travelling to Arkham? Well, a recent psychological exam had resulted him being pronounced insane. The doctor's actual words were "fucking crazy". Well, until our no name prisoner attacked him with his own letter opener. Poor doctor'll never look the same again. The prisoner rocked back and forth in his orange jumpsuit, looking around the van, at the two prison officers tasked with taking him to Arkham. They were conversing about something. Something which struck the man as odd, but at the same time... oh, so wonderful.
"Apparently, he dresses up, and goes out and fights crime." The other guard rolled his eyes, with a twinge of "bullshit" hiding behind them. "I'm not kiddin'. Jimmy Conozzo has been tellin' anyone who'll listen. Tellin' anyone and everyone about the big, black bat that sent him to prison." The other guard laughed, still obviously disbelieving. The prisoner, however, was still listening intently. He stared at the men, taking in every word. A man, going around dressed as a big, black bat? A bat-man? The pure idea sent the man into a giggling fit, which quickly caught the attention of the guards.
"What the hell's the matter with you, chuckles?" The guard moved closer to his charge, pulling his baton out slowly. The prisoner just chuckled even more to himself, eventually changing to a full blown laugh. The guard got even more annoyed, and smacked the prisoner with his baton. He went crashing to the floor of the van, still laughing. The guard quickly realised his mistake, and went to unlock the prisoner's cuffs.
"What are you doing?" the other guard asked, becoming more and more worried by the second.
"If he got free, and I beat on him, I can't get fired. I was just stopping the bad guy," he smirked, before raining down another couple of blows on the now guffawing prisoner. His comrade eventually pulled him back, and the prisoner got to his feet. He composed himself and wiped his eyes.
"I'm sorry, it's just... it sounds like Conozzo was just having a really bat day." The two guards looked at each other, disbelieving. There was silence in the van, until the prisoner began cackling again. He obviously found his own joke hilarious. The guard had had enough. He wrestled free, and moved to strike the criminal again. This time, however, the prisoner was too fast for him. He pulled out a sharpened toothbrush that he'd concealed in his jumpsuit, and proceeded to stab the guard. Multiple times. He collapsed in pain, and the floor started to get a hell of a lot redder. The prisoner, still smiling, moved towards the other guard.
"Don't you just hate it when someone can't take a joke?"